U.S. President Donald Trump says Canadians would have “much better” health coverage if Canada became the 51st state.

He made the remarks during a briefing in North Carolina, where he toured areas struck by Hurricane Helene on Friday.

“I would love to see Canada be the 51st state,” he said. “The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut -- a tremendous tax cut -- because they are very highly taxed.”

“They’d have much better health coverage. I think the people of Canada would like it,” said the president.